Opossums

Opossums are omnivores, eating both meat and vegetation although different species vary the amount of each in their diet.

No, opossums are marsupials. The young develop in the mother's pouch.

Opossums are generally very docile creatures and are nocturnal (come out at night) but in city life you may see them in the day if you have a wooded area around your home. They seldom attack cats or dogs (unless cornered) and prefer to eat slugs, fruit on that has fallen on the ground, cat and dog food that has been left out. If you approach an Opossum they will hiss to scare their predators away. If it still feels threatened it will try to run off. Sometimes Opossums will 'play dead' where it will fall over, gums turn white and they void their bowels which is very foul smelling and deters any predator. Opossums seldom have rabies. It is best to bring your cat indoors during the evening as Raccoons will prey on cats as well as coyotes if you have them in your area.

The answer is NO, unless the dog is infected with it and it bites or scratches you. You can't get rabies with swallowing it.

Its their defense mechanism because many predators will only eat what they kill and will not eat what appears already dead.

You might pull your hair out because you get stressed out too much. Maybe you should relax and just CHILL! You know what I'm saying. It can also be a form of self mutliation like some people scratch or cut themselves on purpose. It is a sign of stress and a could be a partial break-down. The person wants to feel like they are alive because they have become void of feeling.

It means you're a dirty person and you need to clean your basement.

opossums do not have quills. You are thinking of the porcupine.

Yes, opossums of the tribe Didelphini can eat rattlesnakes and other pitvipers (such as Copperheads and Cottonmouths) with impunity. These opossums appear not to take behavioral precautions when subduing these dangerous snakes, and they are often bitten in the process. Their immunity derives from endogenous venom resistance. Rapid adaptive evolution of the gene encoding the von Willebrand Factor (vWF), a venom-targeted hemostatic blood protein, include changes in net charge and hydrophobicity that are hypothesized to weaken the bond between vWF and one of its toxic snake-venom ligands, the C-type lectin-like protein botrocetin.

For more see:

Werner RM, Vick JA (1977) Resistance of the opossum (Didelphis virginiana) to envenomation by snakes of the family Crotalidae. Toxicon 15:29-32

and

Jansa SA, Voss RS (2011) Adaptive evolution of the venom-targeted vWF protein in opossums that eat pitvipers. PLoS ONE 6:e20997

Possums generally give birth to just a single joey (baby possum) at a time. Most species breed just once a year, although smaller species of gliders may breed more than once every year.

Brushtailed possums are not at all dangerous. They are very docile creatures and just want to be left alone. If trapped, like any other animal, they become scared for their life and will defend themselves. They are a very clean, disease free animal, although they are known to harbour ticks and fleas, and pose more of a danger to domestic pets than to people.

Yes, opossums have intercourse. Males' penises split in the middle, making a "Y" shape. This is because females have two vaginas, leading to two separate uteruses, and the males must fertilize each one. After a gestation period of two weeks, the babies are born, helpless. They must climb up to the nipple, where they remain attached all the time until the become big enough to leave it, enter the bigger world, and eventually be weaned.

it lives in warm areas

The correct pronunciation is "possum" the "o" is slient.

Opossums grow their whole life. Unfortunately, in the wild most opossums only live a year or two. The largest opossums would be about the size of a normal house cat.

Possums use their tail to help balance. The tail is prehensile, and can curl around objects for support, but cannot grasp objects; it can only help steady the possum as it dashes along narrow branches and wires.

Dehiscent the mature overy wall (pericarp) breaks open therby freeing the seeds. Indehiscent seeds remain in the fruit after the fruit has ben shed from the parent plant.

There are two schools of thought on this.

One school of thought states that possums will almost always attempt to return to the territory where they were born and raised, unless they are relocated a very long way away. Relocation can be detrimental to the possum, because they then have to compete with other possums for that territory. As a result, they invariably die after relocation.

The other school of thought states that there is insufficient evidence that possums return to a territory to fight for territorial rights to the trees. The idea that the original possum returns comes from the fact that ordinary householders simply observe that there are possums present, and are not able to distinguish between individuals. If possums are removed from a location, then others simply move into the resultant vacant territory. "Relocation, clearly, is not a humane method of dealing with a possum problem".

References: State Government of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Governor in Council order 1995. Pietsch R. 1994, "The fate of the common urban brushtail possums translocated to sclerophyll forest." in "Reintroduction biology of Australian and New Zealand Fauna" Surrey Beatty and Sons, Chipping Norton

No, though most people believe that. The male has a forked penis and the female has two vaginae. They only mate once a year but the female has two litters during one year. One of the pregnancies is delayed.

An opossum's adaptation is to act dead.

The opossum acts dead so the enemy will not bother to go near it,

the because enemy thinks the dead animal is to carry diseases.

Brush tail possums live in hollow trees and logs. Unfortunately, they also like to inhabit the roof space in houses, and have been known to make themselves at home in fireplaces and even dog kennels.

The defense of an opossum is that they pass out, or faint

Humans have impacted significantly on the Mountain pygmy possum's habitat. One of the main threats to the mountain pygmy possum is the human interference as a result of the possum's habitat coinciding with the location of Australia's main ski resorts. The possum's habitat is broken up by ski runs. Skiing and similar human recreational activities are a threat to this delicate creature.

Humans have also introduced animals such as wild cats and foxes which are also a problem. They prey on this small possum.

Another major threat to their survival is the fact that humans have introduced the blackberry species which are gradually making their insidious way up the slopes of the mountains, choking out native species, and thus threatening the mountain pygmy possum's food source.

20miles